Sweet Taste of Birthdays
by InsaneSerenade
Summary: It's Balthier's birthday, and Vaan decides to bake hm a very special cake... Implied BalthierXVaan ONESHOT


Hello! I am InsaneSerenade. My friend and I were talking about Final Fantasy XII, and as we talked, inspiration hit me.

That's where this story comes from. Random acts of Yaoi Fandom.

Cake, this story is for you! 3

I do not own Final Fantasy or any of it's characters. No matter how much I phone-stalk Square Enix, I highly doubt they would give me these characters for my birthday...

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Vaan was working extra hard in the kitchen today. He was making cupcakes, brownies, a cake and even a complete turkey dinner. You don't even want to ask how he managed to sneak these supplies into the kitchen aboard the Strahl without the captain of said airship knowing about it. Because… All of these little treats? They were being made for the pirate's 23rd birthday.

The cake was already finished. It was sitting in a large white box on the corner of the small countertop, awaiting Vaan to scoop it up and hand it to the birthday boy to be eaten.

But this was no ordinary cake. It was a cake specially made by Vaan, for Balthier. Nobody else but his mentor was going to eat this cake. Another one was being made for the rest of the party, just because of Vaan and his over protectiveness of the pastry.

That's when Penelo slipped into the kitchen, her eyes scaling over the counters, floor and even the fridge, all of which were splattered with cake and brownie batter. Her face was twisted into one of utter shock and horror. Vaan sent her one of his more innocent smiles, silently apologizing to his blond friend. Today was her day to clean the ship's kitchen. "I'll clean up after dinner… You can just take my cleanup night."

Penelo shook her head, and grabbed Vaan's wrist, pulling him towards the door of the kitchen. "Balthier is onto you. He knows that you snuck stuff onto the ship. You know how he hates surprises..."

Vaan wrenched his hand free from the dancers grasp and he quickly went back to the oven, checking on the dinner he was making. It would be at least another hour. "Penelo, you have to chill out. I've been around Balthier more than you have, he's been training me, remember? I know he hates surprises, but it's not like he would punish me. It's his birthday! Birthdays are meant for surprises, anyway. He'll understand."

Penelo sighed, leaning against the counter. It was obvious to the thief that his friend didn't believe him. But she had a pretty good reason to. She wasn't around during his and Balthier's one-on-one sessions… And for good reasons. Not only was Vaan learning about the airship, how to fly her, what part goes to which part of the engine, how to steer her and attack oncoming ships at the same time, etc. But he was also learning about the male anatomy in a way Vaan never expected from his mentor.

Vaan looked up at Penelo, just in time to see her reaching out for a box. A big white box. The one with his cake in it… Vaan rushed through the tiny kitchen and snatched the box from under Penelo's thin fingers, making her hand retract a little. "Sorry, Penelo…" Vaan said quietly, a grin spreading across his lips. "This cake of for the birthday boy."

The dancer rolled her pale, stone coloured eyes and took a step backward, out of the kitchen. "Fine, have it your way. But our captain is ordering this birthday business to be over with as soon as possible. It would be best if you gave him that cake soon." And with that, she slipped out of view.

A few moments later, the light sound of voices were heard. One female—Vaan guessed that it was Penelo speaking—and one male. He couldn't make out who it was, but it could be either Balthier or Basch… When the voices stopped, Vaan frowned a little. He wanted to hear more, find out which of the men Penelo had been speaking to.

The curiosity was soon cured a few moments later, when Balthier appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, leaning against the metallic doorframe. His chocolate eyes met Vaan's bright blue ones, a smirk tugging at his lips. "You shouldn't trust a moogle with your secrets, Vaan."

The teen rolled his eyes at the comment. Sure, he had told Nono about his plans to make Balthier a cake for his birthday. But why did Vaan tell the moogle? Because he knew the news would be carried back up to the captain of the ship. He wanted to make it seem innocent, as if Balthier was never meant to know. "Well, he told me he could keep a secret."

"Nono? He couldn't keep a secret from the man who hired him. Not if he wanted to keep his job." Balthier stepped into the kitchen, his eyes slowly trailing down Vaan's body until they reached the box in his hands. "Is that the cake I have heard so much about?"

Vaan shrugged his shoulders, placing the cake on the counter beside him before stepping in front of it, blocking the older man from reaching it. "It might be. But before you get to eat it, I want to know if you have any idea why I decided to make you a cake."

Balthier stopped his advance on the young thief, one of his eyebrows slowly rising up his forehead. Why he was having a cake given to him? "Because today is the day I turn twenty-three. And on the day you celebrate becoming another year older; cake is a traditional treat, is it not?"

Vaan felt like slapping his forehead. Of course that was one reason, but another cake was about to be baked for that exact reason. But this cake? It had meaning behind it. During one of Vaan's special 'anatomy' lessons, he remembered Balthier questioning what the blond tasted like. These lessons weren't exactly as intimate as Vaan had wanted, seeing as Balthier had yet to find out.

With this thought in mind, Vaan turned around and tugged at the string that held his precious present closed. If that's why Balthier wanted a cake, then Vaan would let him think that… For now, anyway. He felt Balthier behind him, his body pressed against the younger males, peeking over his shoulder. When Vaan opened the lid of the box, he swore that he felt Balthier's body tense. The boy turned to look up at his mentor's face, only to see that his lips were pressed into a tight line, his eyes lowered onto the cake. It seemed almost as if he were… Holding back laughter?

This made the young thief frown. He had worked so damned hard on the cake, and Balthier was laughing at it! He looked down at the pastry, and for the first time since he had decorated it, he actually _looked_at it. The cake was the shape of a human—or as human-like as Vaan could make—and what decorated it? Of course, Vaan had drawn himself in the icing. Yellow icing for his bond hair, blue for his eyes, and he improvised for his clothing, seeing as it was pretty hard to find silver icing in Rabanastre.

Balthier noticed the frown on Vaan's face, and as soon as he did, the laughter stopped. Balthier wasn't laughing at the cake, really he wasn't! He was laughing because of the memory of their most previous lesson… "Vaan, this is one of the most creative presents I have gotten in my life." He watched as the teen's face softened, ad his frown suddenly vanished.

This gave Balthier free range to reach down and run his finger over the icing on his cake. Of course, Balthier made sure that his first taste was a very _suggestive _area on the cake. When he placed the fingerful of icing into his mouth, his eyes widened. Balthier usually hated sweet things… But something about this icing—be it who made it, or the area of the cake which had just been tasted—was unlike anything Balthier had ever tasted. He turned to look at the thief, who was smirking up at the copper-haired pirate.

Balthier removed his finger from his mouth, placing his hands on his hips. "What?"

Vaan couldn't help but snigger a little. "I always told you I tasted sweet."

"The jury is still out on that one…" Hopefully, Vaan would catch on to the fact that Balthier was no longer thinking about his cake…

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Well, everyone, that's it. Kapoot. Over. Done.  
And so on and so forth.

I wasn't ready to post this. I was going to rewrite it, add in more details and just fix it up. But because Cake convinced me to, it's up for the whole world to read it's complete epic failure.

But you have to admit, it's a fun story, isn't it? xD

Reviews are loved, but not necissary.  
Though, Authors are really hurt when you don't review their stories. D:  
So please, save the Authors of FanFiction the heartbreak, and review.  
Thank you. :D


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